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Mediterranean
The Mediterranean sea was the highway of the ancient world, and very possibly the route by which Jews first reached Iberia. With the rise of Islam, the Mediterranean became the front line in a “war of civilisations”. I suspect the view from Spain was more black-and-white than from elsewhere. The French were effectively allied with the Turks against the Hapsburg Spanish and Austrians. Italian cities traded with the Muslim world, while Ragusa was in the Turkish zone of influence. There were a number of Spanish and Portuguese enclaves in north Africa.
What was a challenge for Christian and Muslim merchants became an opportunity for their Jewish and New Christian counterparts, After the Expulsion from Spain, a large proportion of the exiles had settled in Italy, North Africa, Egypt, and the cities of Smyrna (Izmir), Salonika (Thessaloniki), Constantinople (Istanbul), the Balkans and elsewhere. Whilst the Turkish empire was in relative decline since European explorers had discovered new routes to Asia, and stumbled across the Americas, it was still a large market, ‘Portuguese’ traders and their local kin were able to supply products from the Americas, Asia and north Europe.
The patchwork of Italian states made it easier for New Christians to encounter people living openly as Jews, and to cross over from Spanish-controlled territory (even if they were to go back again). Victims of the Mexican autos-da-fe in the 1640s report having been in Italy.
The rise of Dutch, then English, sea power in the 17th Century facilitated a population movement from the Mediterranean to northwest Europe.
European Empires
The video below is a nice little introduction to the Spanish and Portuguese empires.